It took only three plays for the Chittenango Bears to make an early statement with a touchdown Friday in their Section III Class B semifinal game against Camden.

More importantly, the Bears never let up, rolling to a 42-14 victory at Rome Free Academy’s stadium and a spot in next week’s section championship game in the Carrier Dome. They will face the winner of today’s Oneida-Cazenovia game. If the top-seeded Lakers win, it will set up a rematch with the Bears (8-1), who lost their only game of the year to Cazenovia on a last-minute Hail Mary pass.

“We knew we couldn’t afford a slow start,” said Jack Hayes, head coach at Chittenango for the last eight years. “We wanted to come right out of the box and set the tempo for the game. Getting up three scores definitely helped.”

The Bears struck quickly by returning the opening kickoff to near midfield, then advancing the ball to the 1 on a 12-yard run by halfback Kyle Zimmer and a 34-yard keeper by quarterback Devin Phelps. Devin Christopher capped the drive with a 1-yard walk-in TD. The next two times Chittenango touched the ball, the result was the same. First, Joe Gilona ended a 70-yard, 10-running-play drive with a 9-yard slash, then Zimmer topped off an 80-yard, 15-play drive with a 4-yard score.

It gave the Bears a 21-0 cushion and a three-touchdown edge that was needed, as Camden threatened twice to make it a close game.

The first came when running back Cody Sullivan brought the Blue Devils to within 21-7 when he finished off a balanced, eight-play drive with a 4-yard run with 6 minutes, 43 seconds remaining in the second quarter.

But Camden gambled on the following play, attempting an onside kick that was recovered by the Bears. Three plays later, Chittenango pushed its lead back to 28-7 when Zimmer snaked up the middle for a 14-yard score.

Camden’s second opportunity to close the gap came when quarterback Colby Stratton directed 10-play scoring drive to start the second half and then the Blue Devils’ defense forced Chittenango into it’s only three-and-out series of the game.

Camden immediately drove to the Bears’ 17 before a holding penalty pushed the Blue Devils back to the 27. On the next play, Stratton’s pass into the end zone was intercepted by Phelps. Five minutes later, Josh Cretaro scored for the Bears, deflating the Blue Devils by pushing the lead to 35-14 two plays into the fourth quarter. Gilona’s second TD with 3:37 remaining provided the final margin, ending Camden’s season with a 5-4 record.

“They put together a couple of nice drives and we had to tighten some things up,” said Hayes, who heaped praise on his team’s total effort.

“Our quarterback (Phelps) pulls the trigger for us and he did a real good job for us, keeping us in position and hitting targets when he needed to. I’m really pleased with him. I thought our running backs, Gilona and Zimmer, both ran real hard. But they can only run hard when our offensive line is doing their job. Our defense really stepped in up in the second half. It was just a great team effort.”

Phelps and Zimmer were equally elated with the victory, particularly with advancing to the Dome for the Section III title game.